“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

Campaign Information

All of the world's heroes have failed. Seven years ago, the beginning of the end came about in the fires of cataclysm and the footsteps of giants. From milennia of slumber, the fallen runelord Karzoug the Claimer arose to reclaim the nation of Varisia as his own. Under his watchful eye, armies of giants and enslaved servants ravaged the Varisian countryside in a war that was equally as brutal as it was short-lived.

Karzoug's march southward would only be thwarted by the combined efforts of Queen Ileosa of Korvosa and the resurrected ancient blue wyrm Kazavon. When Karzoug paused to consider that which was claimed to him, and Avistan began to breathe, the world shuddered from the unexpected impact of a meteor slamming into what was once the elven
nation of Kyonin, now little more than a fiery wasteland ruled over by the demon lord Treerazer.

As miles of forests burned, ash and smoke were kicked into the skies and earthquakes shook the land. Even the brightest noonday sun looked as dim as dawn, and with that perpetual twilight came the armies of the drow to the surface. Once nightmares and folklore of the elves, the drow brought themselves out of superstition and fairy-tale into the homes and cities of the surface world. Backed by enslaved demons and their own flesh-warped and bloodthirsty kin, the drow carved up the middle of Avistan as their own surface holdings, but found themselves pinned between the armies of Karzoug and Queen Ileosa, and one threat far greater.

In the shadows of Gallowspire, the Whispering Tyrant Tar-Baphon found freedom from his centuries old prison. Released into the world, this ancient evil quickly moved to secure his power base by reclaiming Ustalav as his sovereign domain and enslaving the populace that resisted. Those who bent a knee to their undying lord serve the undead, or have joined them. Only the bastion of Lastwall stands against this corrupting tide, joined in this hopeless battle by unlikely allies in the hordes of Belzken who refused to return to the drudgery of Tar-Baphon's servitude, fighting instead for the freedom of their peoples.

Cheliax suffers under the schism of civil war, with an ongoing battle for the city of Westcrown between hellknight forces, the imperial military, and a secretive council of thieves that threaten to pull the former capitol down by its foundations if they cannot have it for themselves.

In the south, whispers turn to screams as the serpent god Ydersius rises from the dead and his ophidian children stir in the jungles and marshes, Villages and cities disappear overnight, and the shadow of the serpent god crosses Garund. But the fires that encompass all that was once Katapesh keep Ydersius at bay for the unearthly spawn of Rovagug, Xotani the fire bleeder, turned the once majestic kingdom into a sea of glass.

Stories from the far east tell of the fall of Imperial Minkai under the sway of an army of powerful oni that have enslaved the empire's peoples and begun to wage war on the surrounding dragon empires.

Golarion teeters on the brink of destruction, and in this darkest hour, the endless approach of winter may well be the final nail in a coffin already lowered into the ground.